Hello geekhack,
I'd like to introduce myself to the community, have been a lurker here for a few months and would like to share my journey in the keycap making.
first of all sorry if my english is bad.
I'm from Indonesia, got my first mechanical keyboard in 2013(DS3-mx brown) and start join the mechanical community in Indonesia. at that time not so many ppl know about artisan keycap it's still new thing but the price are crazy af. I saw this as an opportunity so i began research, but i didn't start at the artisan keycap yet. I don't have any scupting background, however i have some painting background from playing warhammer(tabletop game where you need to paint your miniature). I love to paint even though i didn't play warhammer anymore. beside the idea to make artisan keycap i also have an idea to make a dye-sub keycap for games such as dota2, csgo, etc. When researching about dye-sub, I didn't know dye-sub process is the way to go. and all i know how to make these printed keycaps is to buy flatbed printer machine which cost a lot of money that i don't have. so i got stuck there and slowly forget about the idea
skip to the end 2016, the keyboard community is growing rapidly. so many new artisan keycaps and a lot of variety of novelty keycaps, this lead me to dye-sub process which have to use PBT keycap, inkjet printer with special ink, and dye-sub machine at reasonable cost. at around the same time i start selling my first artisan(lava - handpainted) keycap locally in Indonesia but tbh the resin quality is not good, stem is fragile.
more images:
https://imgur.com/a/jFRkybut by the time i made dota 2 lava artisan keycap (pict in the album) the quality of the resin is a lot better and didn't shattered anymore.
I got my dye-sub machine and start experimenting. it's another challenge because dye-sub use heat to transfer the ink from paper to keycap, if put it to long the image will blur, to short the image won't transfer. also the temperature is crucial. when i got the perfect combination it's easy and i started this landcaps.
more images:
https://imgur.com/a/8N6mrCurrently i only sell it locally in Indonesia, but I will start sell it overseas for the dye-sub product after the artisan keycap that I eager to share with you guys.
The Iron throne keycap.
this is where things get complicated the amount of detail is massive for me who just learn how to scupt but i love to work with something detail. i can sit for hours just to scupt/paint, well it's cause me back problem.
early prototype using DSA keycap as base.
I bought $ynth v2.0 from techkeys. super happy at first. easy to sculpt with.
hardest part is the back of the throne. try different material but the result not satisfying.
dont forget to put artisan's marker
but then when the molding time. the resin just stuck in the $ynth. the mold release that i use just not compatible i guess. i tried using petrolium jelly also doesn't work.
more images for first version using $ynth:
https://imgur.com/a/3XVThso I start over without $ynth, back to DSA keycap as base and make the design more strong and bold.
sorry I only have one picture progress of this one, because I didn't think of documenting it at the time. just take a picture to show it to my gf.
when you do the same thing over and over you get the idea how to do it better. after 1.5 months sculpting the first version i know where to start.
started from back first and all the way down.
painting the result
and I plan to start sale this throne keycap next week, since there are some other things need to be prepared like the packaging, authentication card, more colorways.
authentication card
The Throne album:
https://imgur.com/a/X201Nregarding the colorways,
the resin pigment that i'm using is VERY easy to mix, and there is chemical reaction that visible to naked eye when the pigment touch the resin. it's like you drop oil in the water.
currently i just mix 2 colors when pouring the resin. so when i do that i need to be very careful to do not shake it to much.
but in the future i plan to do double-shot/double-pour the pummel so it can be different color. however to do this i have to make the 5 parts silicone mold, very complex one. if there are suggestion regarding this one I happy to listen.
the resin and silicone that i'm using now it's a local product. don't worry about the resin, i tried to drop it several times from second floor and no major damage.
the silicone however i can only make 8-10 keycap per mold. i solve this by making more molds hahaha. tried harder type of silicone won't do any goods the master is hard to pull out and damage the detail of the mold.
I saw many ppl using smooth-on brand and seems so easy to use, to bad it's not available for me. the cost locally is to expensive also i didn't know how long it's been on the shelf time. so for now i just stick with my regular silicone
Thank you guys for read this long post, if there are some question you would like to ask, please ask. I try my best to answer it.
Best regards,
Landcaps
https://www.instagram.com/landcaps.keycap/edit:some image links missing
